General Workers Union in Malta needs support
After a conciliation meeting held this morning between the Malta Freeport and the GWU chaired by the Minister of Social Policy, an agreement was finally reached.
The agreement states the following:
1 Malta Freeport to withdraw all court procedures including garnishee order
2 GWU To withdraw all industrial actions and all court procedures.
3 Malta Freeport re called the suspended workers as from yesterday
4 Suspend workers will receive all lost wages etc and no disciplinary
action will be taken against them.
5 All parties involved will meet within 2 days to solve the problem of
recognition.
The Minister showed that he was uneasy with the verification process conducted by the Labour Office and it seems that we may have another secret ballot to determine the majority union.
This situation puts GWU in a very good position, whereas all we asked for from the beginning is being granted. We have to wait few more days for the final decision.
It is clear that the International Solidarity we received in few days was paramount for the success.
The following is a copy of a press release issued few minutes ago by the GWU, Minister and Freeport.
Paul Bugeja
Tuesday, 21st April 2009 - 16:20CET
Freeport, GWU lift actions against each other
The Freeport and the General Workers' Union have withdrawn actions against
each other following a meeting led by Social Policy Minister John Dalli.
The trade recognition issue at the heart of the dispute will be discussed
between all concerned at a meeting later this week, the Social Policy
Ministry said.
Both the GWU and the Malta Dockers Union are claiming recognition at Malta
Freeport. The company had recognised the MDU after a verification exercise
conducted by the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations. The GWU,
however, slammed the verification process after holding a secret ballot
which, it said, showed it had majority backing.
The union almost two weeks ago ordered a go-slow and work to rule at the
freeport. The company in turn, took the issue to court and had a ?1m
garnishee order issued against the GWU as a guarantee for damages which the
freeport said it had suffered.
This morning the GWU said the freeport had reinstated workers which, it
said, were suspended for taking industrial action.
